31 Days of Horror: The Evil Dead

Posted by Robert Fure (robert@filmschoolrejects.com) on October 25, 2008

The Evil Dead (1981), The Evil Dead II (1987), The Army of Darkness (1992)

Synopsis: In the beginning, Ash (Bruce Campbell) ventures to a cabin in the woods to spend some time with his buddies and his girl. After playing a recording they find in the basement, an ancient evil is unleashed that attempts to destroy all their souls. In the sequel, which is sort of a sequel, sort of a remake, a healthy dose of comedy is added to the mix, along with more blood, more Kandarian demons, and more craziness in the cabin. By the third installment, our lovable loser Ash has travelled back in time to help rid warring kingdoms of their curse as the Chosen One.

Killer Scene: In The Evil Dead, Ash ventures in the basement where the cabin torments him by leaking blood from every possible location. In the sequel, he is driven insane as parts of the cabin come to life and taunt him. In Army of Darkness, he does battle with his clone, ending the fight with the immortal words “Good, bad, I’m the guy with the gun.”

KILLSHEET

Violence: Over the span of the trilogy, dozens, if not hundreds, die in various ways. There are stabbings, bites, gunshots, chainsaws, swords, arrows, even an explosion or two. Ash takes a beating over and over again while dispatching Deadites left and right with his trusty chainsaw. The original has some more realistic violence, the sequel more over-the-top overly-bloody violence, while the third is somewhere in between.

Sex: There isn’t much in the sex department, but it never really comes to mind. There are glimpses of girls in various states of undress in rare instances, and in the extended edition of Army of Darkness there is a pair of naked breasts, but this isn’t what you pop in when you want to pop wood.

Scares: The original packs in tension and scares, which are somewhat abandoned later in the series in favor of more comedy. Jump scares and kinetic camera movement from back before Sam Raimi vomited out Spider-Man 3 are lots of fun. The first installment is genuinely creepy and the second contains gross-out moments that could be just a touch much for some of our weaker-stomached friends.

Final Thoughts: Is October complete without The Evil Dead? Hell no. Heck, any month is incomplete without watching one of these movies – they easily rank among my all time favorite flicks to watch. I totally whore out on these bloody, funny, fantastic films and buy multiple copies of the DVD, T-Shirts, figures, everything. The original is a great, low budget scary movie. The kind every young man wants to make with his friends (which is exactly what happened). The second, my personal favorite, features tons of gore and blood, a tremendously entertaining performance from Bruce Campbell, and a lot of great laughs. Army of Darkness is a good finish to the story, though like many, I long for more. But if we never get another installment, at least we’ll have this awesome trilogy. If you haven’t seen it, I recommend it totally. One of my fondest memories of this film was in college, when two people watching it became disgusted and walked out of my room. Another of my fond memories of The Evil Dead isn’t fit for print on this website.

Just talk about how awesome Bruce Campbell and The Evil Dead Movies are below. There is no question. There is only awesome.